Ecobank Scales Its Women's Empowerment Programme

The Ecobank Group is driving a shift in women empowerment in Africa with its Ellevate initiative, which has already led it to extend loans of more than 250m to women entrepreneurs across the continent - and it is looking to scale this up significantly in the next few years.

This will be done in partnership with selected development institutions with the same objective of supporting female-owned or led businesses, Carol Oyedeji, head of group commercial banking for Ecobank, tells African Business .

"The proposition is sector-agnostic and spans various sectors, including education, hospitality, the health sector, general commerce, mine support services, construction, agri-business and others, reflecting the diverse entrepreneurial spirit of African women," says Oyedeji, who was previously the deputy managing director at Ecobank Nigeria.

The programme was rolled out from 2020 to the 33 African countries in which Ecobank has a presence, with the Ellevate Leadership Training Programme launched in 2022 in partnership with the Global Business School Network.

Although access to finance remains one of the main barriers to women entrepreneurs, there are many more intangible challenges, such as cultural biases and stereotypes, Oyedeji says.